Abruptum

Formed: 1989
Disband: 2005
Genre(s): Avant-garde black metal.




Abruptum was an avant-garde black metal and dark ambient band from Sweden formed in 1989 by IT (aka Tony Särkkä), All (aka Jim Berger), and Ext. IT had already planned to create the band in 1987, but it wasn't until 1990 that he found the right members to do it. The same year, they recorded their first two demos. After the release of the first demo, they sacked their bass player Ext. After the release of a 7-inch EP simply called Evil in 1991 (later re-released by Psychoslaughter), All began to drink heavily and was forced to leave the band. IT then found a new member in Evil (aka Morgan Steinmeyer Håkansson) of Marduk. Around this time, IT reunited with All to form the side project, Vondur. At the time, IT was one of the leaders within what was called the Satanic Black Circle, part of the Swedish Black metal scene.
Abruptum was signed to Euronymous's label Deathlike Silence Productions, on which they released two albums. Euronymous noted them as being "the audial essence of pure black evil", and IT considered Euronymous to be "a true ally." After Euronymous's murder, they would contribute the opening track to the compilation album Nordic Metal: A Tribute To Euronymous.
IT left the band and the black metal scene altogether in 1996, following numerous threats made to him and to his family. Evil kept Abruptum going and released material on his own record label, Blooddawn Productions, until 2005 when he announced that he had ended Abruptum.

Music Themes & Style

While Abruptum is classified as a black metal/dark ambient band, the band took a different approach to their music. They did not focus on creating any structured songs, and mostly just made noise. Earlier material had shorter songs but their later releases typically included one or two tracks with more than forty minutes of music. They primarily used standard drums, guitars, bass, keyboards and other various instruments, but what stood out even more was the screaming, as the band supposedly tortured and cut each other during their recordings. Whether this is true or not has never really been verified. This led to Euronymous' now (in)famous distinction of Abruptum as "The Audial Essence Of Pure Black Evil". After IT left the band, Evil changed the band's musical style to more dark ambient/noise and dropped most of the metal sound.

Members

• IT (Tony Särkkä) - Vocals, Guitars, Bass, Drums, Violin (1989-1996)
• Evil (Morgan Håkansson) - Guitars, Piano, Vocals, Programming (1991-2005)
• All (Jim Berger) - Vocals (1990-1991)
• Ext - Bass (1990)

Discography

• Abruptum (Demo, 1990)
• The Satanist Tunes (Demo, 1990)
• Evil (7" EP, 1991)
• Orchestra of Dark (Same as 'The Satanist Tunes' with additional 'Outro' added, 1991)
• Obscuritatem Advoco Amplectere Me (Deathlike Silence Productions, 1993)
• In Umbra Malitae Ambulabo, In Aeternum In Triumpho Tenebrarum (Deathlike Silence Productions, 1994)
• Evil Genius (First Two Demos and 7" EP on one CD;[2] Hellspawn Records, 1995; remastered and re-reissued by Black Lodge Records and Southern Lord Records with a bonus track in 2007)
• Nordic Metal: A Tribute To Euronymous (Track Contribution: 'De Profundis Mors Vas Cousumet', 1995)
• Vi Sonas Veris Nigrae Malitiaes (Full Moon Productions, 1996)
• De Profundis Mors Vas Cousumet ('Nordic Metal' track + 2 Unreleased Tracks); Blooddawn Productions, 2000)
• Casus Luciferi (Blooddawn Productions, 2004)
• Maledictum (EP), 2008

Official page: http://www.myspace.com/ophthalamia